Conventional motor vehicles with an engine that generates waste heat usually include a coolant circuit, by which the engine, for example an internal combustion engine, can be thermally coupled to at least one heat exchanger, for example a radiator. A coolant such as, for example, cooling water mixed with antifreeze circulates in the coolant circuit.
Conventional coolant circuits include an expansion tank for initially filling the coolant circuit with the coolant, as well as for separating and extracting gas bubbles that are inevitably present in the coolant circuit. This expansion tank typically includes an inlet for the coolant, as well as an outlet for the coolant. In light of the constricted space conditions in the engine compartment of a motor vehicle, such expansion tanks occupy a comparatively large volume that can hardly be reduced due to the functionality of the expansion tank. The accommodation of the expansion tank and its connections, particularly the inlet and the outlet, occasionally has to be individually adapted to different vehicle types.
For a motor vehicle manufacturer, who offers a wide variety of different vehicles and vehicle types on the market, it would therefore be desirable to minimize the manufacturing and tool costs for such expansion tanks, if possible without compromising the flexibility and individual adaptability of expansion tanks to the given geometric requirements in an engine compartment.